Keeping the faith in Israel for a two-state solution

When Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Israel this week for the first time in over a year, he will find a much more difficult situation than when he last visited. Following the breakdown in peace negotiations in 2014, violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank has steadily risen. This past month, 11 Israelis died in more than 600 attacks – the most in a single month in nearly a decade.

While Kerry hopes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will agree to implement stabilization and confidence building measures in tandem with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the political environment in Israel is simply not conducive for Netanyahu to take decisive action.

Since the March 2015 elections that returned Netanyahu to power, the Israeli right wing has been on the offensive. The election results signaled to Netanyahu’s Likud party and political parties further to the right that an ultra-nationalist, pro-settlement agenda could be successful and even gain more seats in future elections. Naftali Bennett, leader of the far-right Jewish Home party and a key member of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, has continued to demand that the government annex Area C (about 60 percent of the West Bank) to Israel, and his supporters sense that they have the legitimacy to push for more radical right-wing policies within the current governing coalition. The vicious circle of violence strengthens support for their arguments within the Israeli public.

At the moment, Netanyahu has been unwilling to annex Area C or take any similar action. Instead, he has preferred to proceed with business as usual rather than risk significant anti-Israeli measures from Israel’s largest trading partners in the European Union or any U.S. diplomatic actions the Obama administration still might take before Jan. 20, 2017.

Nevertheless, despite the inertia of inaction and the push for unilateral annexation, there is still substantial support for preserving the two-state solution from Israeli governmental institutions, the Knesset and grassroots Israeli organizations. The Israel Defense Forces recently published a strategy document that, at its core, advocates a two-state solution. Orthodox Jewish politicians, centrist parties, as well as an important part of Likud remain in favor of seeking a two-state solution. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has also made strong statements calling Israelis to come to terms with Palestinian neighbors both within Israel and in the West Bank.

Within this political environment, it is essential to renew Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution and that the international community continues its efforts to support, study and advocate for resolution to the conflict in which Israel and Palestine live side by side in peace and security. Support for the two-state solution in Israel is largely on the basis of a 90-7-3 division in which 90 percent of the West Bank becomes the undisputed territory of the state of Palestine, 3 percent is incorporated into Israel and the status of the remaining 7 percent is resolved through longer-term conflict transformation concepts. The sticking point is what happens in the area of the 7 percent, but there are various means to deal with these details through an approach that builds legitimacy and trust on both sides.

Renewed emphasis also must be placed on creating a functioning relationship between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Israeli. A dramatic process is underway to empower Palestinians in Israel socially, economically, politically and culturally. Arab student representation at the Technion, Israel’s oldest university, has risen from 2 percent to 11 percent in recent years. This figure is still short of mirroring the Arab representation in the general population, but it is significant nonetheless. Health care and other service industries in Israel are sustained by Arab professionals; the Arab population wants to be part of Israel and wants a two-state solution with equal civilian rights — and the present Israeli government is allocating substantial funding to support social and economic development in Arab communities in Israel, which also serves to increase development nationwide.

This is not to say that matters will be smooth; they will not. However, the logic of peaceful separation, ending the occupation and creating workable neighborly relations, is still decisive, and strongly influences the thinking on both sides of the divide, irrespective of recent developments.

Yair Hirschfeld is the Isaac and Mildred Brochstein Fellow in Middle East Peace and Security in Honor of Yitzhak Rabin at the Baker Institute.